Card Room

Chapter 60 – Financial Crisis 20: Outsmart

After agreeing to the next plan, Xiao Lou led a few men downstairs to carry the materials together. The girls helped Xie Qi with collecting the information. They worked together and quickly moved the truckload of supplies to a room on the third floor.

There were more than 20 boxes of mineral water, 12 boxes of milk, 8 boxes of chocolate, 18 boxes of instant noodles, all types of dry fruits, numerous snack bags and even commonly used medicine were sorted into two boxes…

The temporary housekeeper Xie Qi couldn’t help exclaiming, “We can directly open a supermarket with these materials!”

Everyone was busy sorting out the materials. In the evening when everyone was tired, Xiao Lou gathered them to prepare dinner together.

According to the rules, they had to find Xie Qi to collect and register anything they wanted to eat. This would help with knowing the numbers of the remaining inventory.

The bearded uncle came up and said, “Xiao Xie, can I get two cans of meat? I love meat but I didn’t dare to buy it in order to save money.”

Xie Qi nodded. “Of course, you can. Just register casually. We shouldn’t be too wasteful and should eat what we bought!”

The girl next to him was excited. “Can I have some canned fruit? I haven’t eaten fruit in several days…”

Someone came over and said, “Xiao Xie, give me a bottle of Coke, hehe.”

Xie Qi spun nonstop like a gyroscope. He went to different rooms to find food for everyone, distributed the food, registered the supplies, prepared the food and was as enthusiastic as a volunteer working with the elderly.

Xiao Lou looked at the scene and couldn’t help laughing. “Xiao Xie is really clever.”

Shao Qingge squinted as he watched the busy Xie Qi. “There is a centralized distribution and if we can successfully sell the rest of the materials, we can certainly make a lot of money. What price are you going to sell it at? The market price should be 128 times higher on the seventh day.”

“…” This person was always thinking about making money. Xiao Lou told him, “128 times is too exaggerated. The price is so high that the public might not be able to afford it. How about three times?”

Items couldn’t be taken out of the secret rooms but money could. Therefore, it was best to convert these materials into cash. After a few days of the financial crisis, the challengers might barely have money but the local citizens might still have some savings. However, the people kept their heads down in order to avoid being robbed so they needed to come up with a surefire plan.

The fourth day was very peaceful.

Once it was dark, Xiao Lou went to the first floor to see Boss Zhang. “Boss, we have decided to go back to the Shanshui Guesthouse. Where did you keep our room fees?”

The boss was hungry and had long lost his ability to resist. He spoke with a dejected face. “It is hidden in the safe in the basement. The key to the basement is on me.” He looked up at Xiao Lou. “If you get the money, can you let me go?”

“Not for the time being.”

He couldn’t be sure if this boss still had any accomplices. They couldn’t let him go until everyone cleared the instance.

Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou used the teleportation card to return to the Shanshui Guesthouse. It was empty and the corpse hidden in the basement had started to rot. A strong smell came the moment they opened the door.

Yu Hanjiang covered his mouth and nose with a black cloth and quickly searched the basement with a bright flashing. He found a black safe and gently knocked on it with his ears against the safe. After confirming there wasn’t any mechanism in it, he brought it back to Xiao Lou.

Xiao Lou put the safe in front of the boss and smiled. “You opened a place to make money but you shouldn’t bully us foreigners. You received our room fees and we will take double. Do you have any opinion?”

The boss nodded eagerly. “No opinion… all to you, I’ll give it all to you!”

He was really afraid of this Xiao Lou. Don’t look at this man’s gentle smile and good words. If someone tried to bully him, he would definitely smile when killing the other person. The boss looked at Xiao Lou in a begging manner. “Can you give me some food? I don’t want to starve to death.”

Xiao Lou spoke lightly. “Don’t worry, you won’t die if you don’t eat for a day.”

The boss, “…” His heart was collapsing.

Xiao Lou opened the safe to count the money and gave the gold coins to everyone upstairs. “This is your room fees.”

Everyone was shocked. “We also get our accommodation fees back?” “Oh my god, so much money. Is this real?” “This brother is too great, he can actually get the money back…”

Xiao Lou laughed. “The boss opened a store to rob and kill us first. Isn’t it reasonable for us to go back to the Shanshui Guesthouse and get his safe?”

The group almost raised their hands and feet in agreement.

Everyone listened more to Xiao Lou’s words after getting back the accommodation fee. Several females looked at Xiao Lou with worship and a few people came to him and asked in a low voice, “Brother, is your team still missing people? I promise that I will be obedient if you take me…”

Yu Hanjiang frowned uncomfortably and interrupted, “It is dark. Everyone sleep in the third floor room while we will go downstairs to stand guard.”

He was looking at Xiao Lou as he spoke. The remaining challengers glanced at each other.

Downstairs, the two people continued sleeping in the van.

Once it was quiet, Yu Hanjiang suddenly felt his ears become much cleaner.

He glanced sideways at Xiao Lou and whispered, “These people might not be members of the mysterious organization but there is still a risk taking so many people to clear the instance. If they cause trouble at a critical moment then it might affect us.”

Xiao Lou said, “Group Leader Yu, rest assured, I have a more secure plan.”

There was a light smile on his face and Yu Hanjiang couldn’t help asking, “What plan?”

“Group Leader Yu, do you remember the reward card for 2 of Spades?”

Yu Hanjiang suddenly realized. “The zombie virus? You want to use this against the prisoners tomorrow night?”

“The cards in this Card World can be used very flexibly. The Nine Palaces Grid obtained from 2 of Diamonds helped people with weak fighting ability like me to clear 2 of Spades.”

Xiao Lou took out two A-grade cards from his card pack. “The zombie virus can make the actions of the prisoners extremely slow. If we take the special vaccine in advance, we won’t be affected by the virus.”

Yu Hanjiang, “……”

Professor Xiao was too clever.

He hadn’t thought of using the 2 of Spades reward card against the 3 of Spades mob.

Yu Hanjiang’s initial idea was to set up the sniper rifle on the roof and kill the prisoners one by one. It was just that he had a limited number of bullets, only 10. He couldn’t finish it if there were too many prisoners.

On the other hand, Xiao Lou’s method was good. Collectively infect the prisoners with the zombie virus and their actions would become slow. They would use traps and tools to kill them while controlling the spread of the virus, ensuring that the virus didn’t affect innocent people. It was the best of both worlds.

***

The 3 of Spades secret room, the fifth day.

The prices had soared by a terrible 32 times and the supermarket was out of stock. All businesses, factories and units had completely shut down. The tickets for trains leaving the city were sold out. Militants who couldn’t buy tickets destroyed the railway, not allowing trains to make it out of City A. The buses and cars were stopped as the drivers went on a collective strike.

The entire city was completely paralyzed.

On the prison side, the prisoners escaped. They burned and looted, burning the pedestrian street to ashes and destroyed all stores on both sides of the street. On the street, an elderly couple had just gone out to give their son and daughter-in-law some food, only to be beaten up… the two old people were actually killed.

The prisoners were holding weapons such as a variety of long knives and guns they stole from the police. People could resist and fled while screaming and crying. It was like hell on Earth!

Yu Hanjiang saw this scene and wanted to immediately line up and shoot to kill this group of animals!

The city wasn’t safe at all and the construction site was their last position.

Yu Hanjiang alone couldn’t save the entire city. He received Xiao Lou’s concerned text message and immediately returned to the construction site to prepare.

Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, a pair of challengers came to the door.

They were the couple who had their materials stolen on the second day. They left the Shanshui Guesthouse and relied on the few bottles of milk in their backpack to hold on for two days. They didn’t look good. They walked listlessly, had chapped lips and were pale. Their feet stumbled as they helped each other move forward. The girl was apparently injured because her arm was constantly bleeding.

The curly haired female responsible for the monitoring on the third floor immediately reported to Xie Qi. “Xiao Xie, two people are heading to the construction site from the northeast direction. They are the couple from the guesthouse.”

This telescope card allowed her to monitor a very far distance and the image displayed on the screen was very clear. She could also zoom in.

Xie Qi used his phone to report this to Xiao Lou.

Yu Hanjiang looked at Xiao Lou’s face and spoke in a low voice, “Do you want to help them?”

Xiao Lou nodded. “It is the couple who had their supplies stolen on the second day. We have so many supplies that an extra two people doesn’t matter. However, we can’t let them affect everyone’s plans. I will go talk to them and give them some food while seeing if they have any cards and are willing to help.”

Yu Hanjiang decisively followed him. “I will accompany you.”

They stopped the couple. The other side thought they were robbers and were frightened. “Don’t kill us… we really have nothing worthwhile…”

Xiao Lou saw them shaking. They had apparently encountered a lot. His heart couldn’t bear it and he spoke warm words, “Don’t be afraid, this construction site has food. It is a temporary camp for challengers. If you are willing to listen to our orders then you are welcome to join the organization.”

Organization? Both people stared in amazement.

They came to the construction site in a half suspicious and half believing manner. Xie Qi warmly brought mineral water, milk, bread, chocolate and other food for them to eat. The females who previously saw them at the guesthouse ran over and ask if they were cold while helping the bleeding girl with her warm. They gave her some anti-inflammatory and anti-fever medicine.

The couple, who had been hungry for two days, wept in front of the crowd.

The girl was crazy from hunger and cried as she gnawed on the bread, “I thought we were dead… thank you… thank you… I didn’t expect a challengers organization… it is really good…”

The man was also red-eyed as he drank a bottle of mineral water. “We will join! I can do anything and follow orders! However, my girlfriend was stabbed and I can’t take her. Can you let her rest first?”

Xiao Lou replied, “No problem. Xiao Gao, take her upstairs to sleep.”

The man was relieved after his girlfriend was taken away and asked, “What is your plan?”

Xiao Lou had him take out a card and he cooperated by taking out his most powerful card. It was ‘Umbrella’ and could be opened and enlarged by 10 times to block all projectiles. This happened to be a defensive type card. Xiao Lou had him stay on the third floor to protect the females in charge of the monitoring.

It got dark and everyone gathered for dinner.

All the supplies were concentrated and dinner was very rich, consisting of fruit, meat, snacks and everything.

The man who was hungry for a few days wolfed down the rice and his face finally regained some colour.

Seeing that it was getting dark, Xiao Lou gathered everyone together. “I need to count the number of people who have perfectly cleared 2 of Spades and received the special effects vaccine. Please raise your hand.”

Several people raised their hands, including Shao Qingge.

Xiao Lou roughly calculated it. “The number of vaccines is sufficient.”

His eyes swept across the room like he was standing at a podium to teach students. He was calm as he said, “Those who escaped from prison are mostly death row inmates. They have no scruples and will kill and set fire in the city. Soon, they will fight the construction site. It isn’t good to fight against them head on. We can only be smart.”

He paused before saying, “Once they enter the construction site, I will try to release the zombie virus in the crowd. You experienced 2 of Spades and should know that this virus will greatly reduce their speed but it will enhance their attack ability.”

One girl remembered her bad experience with the zombies and trembled with a white face. “This.. what if we get infected?” At first glance, she didn’t get a special vaccine card.

Xiao Lou told her, “Don’t worry, we will inject a special vaccine and be completely immune to the virus.”

A young man patted his thigh. “This is a good way! We will be vaccinated and won’t be affected by the virus. This way, the group of prisoners will be infected and become slow-moving corpses?”

People who didn’t get the vaccine card looked at the notes of the special effects vaccine card and was shocked. Complete immunization!

They finally put down their worries and agreed to Xiao Lou’s proposal.

This was indeed a ‘smart’ way to avoid a direct conflict with the mob. The people here weren’t good at fighting and the odds weren’t high. The zombie virus would turn the prisoners into slow-moving corpses. Thinking back to 2 of Spades, everyone was confident of winning the battle!

Xiao Lou arranged for everyone to be given the special vaccine in batches and called for several people to arrange traps outside the construction site.

After the preparations, the sun slowly set below the horizon and night came.

Previously, once it became dark, everyone was scared, worried about their supplies being stolen and worried their rooms would be smashed…

However, at this moment, all of them were united and they no longer had to be afraid.